Microsoft on Wii being 'developer-friendly'

news via aussie-nintendo

One of the key philosophies Nintendo has implemented when creating Wii has been to make it a console that is both quick and easy to develop for. The same goal was imagined on GameCube, and at heart, the Big N's new generation console is merely an extension of that original product.

Speaking in an interview series with GamesIndustry.biz, the general manager of Microsoft's Game Development Group, Chris Satchell, was quizzed about Nintendo's Wii being a 'developer-friendly' machine.

Satchell responded, "I think [Wii is] a simpler machine. It is a pretty simple architecture to program for." But he was quick to describe Microsoft's development environment, and the tools it has created for developers, and insisted, "To do an equivalent experience to what's possible on Wii actually wouldn't be any harder [on Xbox 360]."

"But remember what's happening on 360 is that the experience people are building are so much more complex," he added. "People are making it hard for themselves, not just because it's a more powerful platform but they want to fill it out. If you look at what they do with their simulations, with their graphics rendering, with their world technologies, they're just more complex games."

Last week, in part one of the same interview, Satchell expressed that he thinks the Wii is "of interest" following its fast start, but questioned its long-term potential.

pah. how dare he question its long-term potential. it has shed loads of potential